When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus makes and baptises more disciples than John
The chapter opens with a report, not a miracle: the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was gaining more followers than John the Baptist. Why did the Son of God answer their jealousy by leaving Judaea, and why does John say that Jesus Himself did not baptize?
The verse names Him in two different ways. One writer notes who uses each name, and how the Lord came to know the report:
Notice "the Lord" used by the writer of the Gospel, and "Jesus" used by the Pharisees. For "the Lord," compare John 6:23, John 11:2, John 20:20. "Knew" — that is, supernaturally.
The same writer points out who actually did the baptizing, and what the Lord already knew was coming:
His disciples had little idea of the depth of the glory in Him, or of the blessing for man that came with it. They baptized eagerly, and so exposed their Master to the spite of those who could hardly bear His increase and honour. Notice that it was not He, but His disciples, who baptized. He knew the end from the beginning. They might baptize people to Him as Messiah. But He, the Son of God, knew from the first that He must suffer and die as the Son of Man. So the baptism He instituted came afterwards, and pointed to His death and resurrection. The Son of God knew what was in man, even when man wanted to honour Him for the signs He did. He knew just as well how His disciples' activity would affect the religious men of that day.
The word order in the verse settles a practical question about baptism:
Do I need to quote John 4:1 to prove how foolish it is to think that baptizing is the means of making disciples? "Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John." Baptizing, then, is the outward mark of someone who is already a disciple... We never hear of Peter, or anyone else, going first to baptize; they went to preach, and then those who received the word were baptized.
One writer names the group behind the report and the reasons for their hostility:
Very early, as we have seen, opposition arose (2:18). Now we learn of a group more bitterly opposed to Him than any other: the Pharisees. His teaching condemned their hypocritical practices. And it seems that the spread of the new movement stirred up their jealousy, since people saw Him as its head.
His answer to the whispering was to leave. One writer sees in that a kindness aimed at John as much as at Himself:
John gladly took the place of decreasing so that his Master might increase. The Master withdrew to Galilee so that no one might set up a rivalry, which would have hurt His servant so much. Such was His thoughtful care for John. What is more, treating Him that way would have belittled the Lord Himself. It would have placed Him alongside John as a kind of party leader.
Their jealousy did more than move Him a few miles. It emptied the land of the one thing that made it privileged:
It was the jealousy of the Pharisees that really drove the Lord out of Judaea. What was that land any longer? What was it without Him, above all, when it rejected Him and He abandoned it? They might boast of the law, but they had not kept it. They might claim the promises, but He — the promised One who fulfils them all — had been there, and they did not know Him or love Him. What use was the first covenant to them now? It could only secure their condemnation; it could bring no deliverance.
What closed in Judaea opened elsewhere, and the move was toward freedom, not retreat:
He had left the religious centre of men, so that nothing could hinder His display of grace... In the freedom of His own grace, He goes to the place where He can meet the most wretched heart on earth. He goes there to fill it by revealing Himself.
- Knew — He knew the report supernaturally, just as He knew from the first that He must die. Nothing caught Him off guard.
- Made — the word received makes a disciple; baptism then marks him out. The washing never manufactures one.
- Envied — the Pharisees resented the growing crowd, and His teaching condemned their hypocrisy.
- Withdrew — He refused the role of a rival party leader, sparing John and guarding His own honour.
- Overflowed — jealousy emptied Judaea of its Messiah and carried His grace out to the neediest heart He could find.
(however, Jesus himself did not baptise, but his disciples),
The Pharisees heard that Jesus was baptizing more disciples than John. The writer of the Gospel breaks in to correct them: the baptizing was real, but the hands were His disciples' hands, not His own.
Before asking why He held back, it helps to see what His followers were doing, and what their baptizing meant:
Here at the start we find Jesus with His disciples in Judea, and baptizing. Yet we are told at once that the Lord did not baptize Himself — only His disciples did (John 4:2)... In the New Testament, baptism is always to death. Christian baptism is to Christ's death (Rom. 6:3). To take your place in death is to profess repentance... Yet through His disciples He could confirm this truth, while taking care to keep His own place apart.
The reason lies in what He knew about His own mission:
Jesus did not Himself baptise, for He knew the whole extent of the counsels of God in grace, the true object of His coming. He could not bind souls by baptism to a living Christ. The disciples were right in so doing. They had so to receive Christ. It was faith on their part.
Another writer explains what that rite could reach, and what it could not:
Christ had before Him the counsels of God, to bring sinners into heavenly blessings. So He could not carry out a rite that only linked them with Himself on earth, even though it did separate souls from the guilty nation. For the disciples, at the moment it was right to baptize; for in the faith of their souls they knew Christ only on earth.
The disciples worked with zeal, but their view of Him was smaller than the truth:
The disciples had little idea of the depth of the glory in Him, or of the blessing that would follow for man. They baptized with zeal, and so exposed their Master to the spite of men who could barely stand His increase and honour. Notice that it was not He, but His disciples, who baptized. He knew the end from the beginning... They might baptize to Him as Messiah; but He, the Son of God, knew from the first that He must suffer and die as the Son of Man... So the baptism He set up came after His death and resurrection, and pointed to them.
One writer draws out what the disciples could do, and what only He could do:
The Lord now leaves Judea. He knew what the Pharisees were thinking about His baptizing more disciples than John. The Lord Himself did not do the baptizing. He left that to His disciples. They could bury the dead, but He is the giver of life.
The gift of the Spirit is itself called a baptism. One writer takes the Lord's own conduct here as the proof that the two baptisms must never be mixed:
Baptism with the Holy Spirit is a true initiation into a spiritual state. It must never be confused with any baptism of water. The Lord's own conduct draws that line: "Jesus Himself did not baptize, but only His disciples" (John 4:2).
The same pattern appears later with Peter and Paul, and it settles a question about who may baptize:
Notice in passing that baptizing is in no way a task only a minister may do. It can be quite right and fitting for someone preaching the gospel to baptize. But a case might well arise where the preacher would avoid doing it himself. Paul thanked God that this was so with himself at Corinth. Peter here did not baptize either. He simply "commanded them to be baptized." God is always wise.
- Correction. The rumour said Jesus was baptizing. The writer breaks in: the hands were His disciples'. He kept His own place apart, and through them confirmed the truth.
- Knowledge. He held back because He knew the whole plan of God. No rite could bind souls to a living Christ whose death and resurrection were still ahead.
- Timing. For the disciples it was right at that moment, because they knew Him only on earth. The baptism He set up came after His death, and pointed to it.
- Distinction. He did not baptize with water, and that draws a line no one should erase. Water baptism is one thing. Baptism with the Spirit is another.
- Delegation. What He left to others, others may do. Baptizing needs no special office. Giving life He kept to Himself.
he left Judaea and went away again unto Galilee.
This verse records a movement, not a miracle. The Son of God turns His back on Judea. That short travel note opens the whole chapter: it is how a Samaritan woman at a well came to meet the Messiah of Israel.
The Pharisees had heard that His disciples were baptizing crowds. Their jealousy is what moved Him. One writer asks what that land was worth once He left it:
It was the jealousy of the Pharisees, then, which in reality drove the Lord from Judaea. What was that land any longer? What was it without Him, above all, when it rejected Him and He abandoned it? They might boast of the law, but they had not kept it. They might claim the promises, but He had been there — the promised One, the One who fulfils all the promises. They did not know Him. They did not love Him. More and more they showed how estranged their hearts were from Him, their Messiah. What could the first covenant do for them now? It could only ensure their condemnation; it could work no deliverance. These proud religious men saw in Him only a man. They never suspected that He was the Word become flesh.
He was leaving no ordinary place:
After the introductory chapters, the Gospel of John begins by showing us Jesus leaving Judea. He leaves the Jewish capital, the centre of the throne of God on the earth. It was the ancient seat of Him who had now come down in grace, and who could not find where to lay His head in an unfriendly world.
Leaving that circle carries a lesson for us:
He had left the religious centre of men, so that nothing would hinder His display of grace. And you can depend on it: if you want to reach and enjoy the truth of God, you have to leave human religion in every shape behind.
He did not walk away coldly:
Men did not believe on Him because of the miracles He did. Instead the Pharisees grew jealous. So the Son of God in sorrow turns His back on that Judea to which He came from God. He felt it, as He always did. It could not be otherwise; it ought not to be otherwise. Love could not help feeling it. It was not just that they rejected Him. He felt for them as they threw away their own mercies, rejecting God Himself — rejecting Him, their Messiah. Yet this very rejection leads Him to display such grace as Judea had never heard of.
One writer traces what came of that withdrawal:
He knew they were aware that His disciples were making and baptizing many on His behalf. He knew this would draw out hostility, so He withdrew from among them. He went towards Galilee, and had to go through Samaria. There He met the woman and ministered blessing to her soul, which resulted in blessing for many others also. If some reject His grace, their unbelief does not dry up the channel, but diverts it: others get it.
His road to Galilee ran through Samaria:
He was weary, so He sits down outside the town at the edge of the well. He had to go that way. But this necessity gave occasion for the working of that divine grace which filled His Person. That grace overflowed the narrow limits of Judaism.
Another writer puts the same point about the route more directly: the way He took was not only about the map.
His route to Galilee lay through Samaria and He had to pass that way. This was not only because of where these two regions lie, but to accomplish a work in a woman and in others who belonged to the city of Sychar.
Where He went matters too:
Christ knew that, for the time, His earthly Kingdom was set aside. So He leaves Judaea to go into Galilee of the Gentiles (Matthew 4:15), to teach us truths that are for all the world.
- Cause — the jealousy of the Pharisees over His growing number of disciples drove the Lord out of Judea.
- Cost — He felt the rejection. He was leaving the Jewish capital, the centre of God's throne on earth, with nowhere to lay His head.
- Channel — unbelief in one place does not dry up grace. It diverts it, and others get what one group refused.
- Course — the road through Samaria looked like plain geography. In fact it was the occasion for grace to overflow the limits of Judaism and reach a woman at a well.
- Compass — He heads for Galilee of the Gentiles, and what He teaches from there is for all the world, not one nation.
And he must needs pass through Samaria.
Between Judea and Galilee, John records one word about the route — a "must." Was it simply the shortest road? Or was something else drawing Him to a well in Samaria?
The plain reading is a matter of maps: Samaria lay between Judea and Galilee. But the road also brought Him to one particular town. Commentators read a second reason behind the first.
The direct route to Galilee ran through the district of Samaria, so He "had to go" that way. That was a matter of geography. But there was also a necessity tied to the grace of God. It set Him on a road that brought Him to one particular city of Samaria, called Sychar.
Others push further. The shortest road was not the only road open to a Jewish traveller.
Why did He have to pass through Samaria? It is true that the direct route to Galilee ran through Samaria. But strict Jews took other routes, to avoid a people they despised. So the need was not a question of roads and countries. May we not say instead that the need was in the heart of God? Before the world was made, God had purposed blessing for a poor sinful woman in Samaria. To win that soul and gladden the heart of God, Jesus had to go through Samaria.
Commentators differ here. One writer takes the necessity as practical, while still allowing God's purpose behind it:
The "must" in chapter 4:4 is a practical one. The straight way was through Samaria, and the Jews usually went that way, though they did not stop in Samaria as they passed. I would not say He went on purpose to meet this woman — though it was God's purpose that He should.
He did not leave Judea by choice. The same writer who calls the necessity practical still sees the move as an opening for something larger.
Now, in John 4, Jesus is driven away by the jealousy of the Jews. He begins His ministry outside that people, while still recognising their true place in God's dealings. He goes away into Galilee, but His road led Him past Samaria... Being weary, He sits down outside the town at the edge of the well — for He had to go that way. But this necessity gave occasion for the working of that divine grace which was in the fullness of His Person, and which overflowed the narrow limits of Judaism.
Rejection in one place did not shut down His work; it redirected it.
He went towards Galilee, and had to go through Samaria. There He met the woman and brought blessing to her soul, and that brought blessing to many others too. If some reject His grace, their unbelief does not dry up the channel — it diverts it, and others get it.
Samaria was not neutral ground. Jews kept apart from Samaritans. One writer argues they were right to do so, which makes the Lord's place on that road all the more striking.
The Jews were acting in consistent righteousness when they refused all dealings with the Samaritans... They were to be God's witnesses against the world. They were the clean, kept separate from the unclean, as a testimony to the righteousness of God against a corrupted earth. But Jesus was now standing apart from Israel. He had left Judea, the place of righteousness, and stood in defiled Samaria as Son of God, the Saviour of sinners. He had already gone to Judea looking for righteousness, the proper fruit of that country, and had not found it. He is not going to look for it in Samaria either. Here He must act in another way altogether — in the way of grace only.
At the well two tired people meet. One writer sets their contrast side by side.
She too was weary, as her words soon show. She was alone, as He was alone — but that only makes the contrast greater. She was in the sin that leaves a person isolated, shamed and condemned; He was in the unique glory of His Person and of His search... They were at opposite extremes, on opposite paths, and yet they met. It was not by her will or her planning, and she did not know what lay ahead of her. On His side it was the love that carried its own necessity: "He had to pass through Samaria."
- Must (1). On the surface the word is geography: the straight road from Judea to Galilee ran through Samaria.
- Must (2). Writers see a second necessity too: grace steering Him to one town, one well, one woman. Commentators differ on how far to press this.
- Must, not merit. Samaria was the place Jews avoided. He came there not to look for righteousness, but "in the way of grace only."
- Must, redirected. Jealousy in Judea pushed Him out. Unbelief did not dry up the stream of blessing; it diverted it, and others received it.
- Must, and met. She came for water by her own will; He came by love's own necessity — and their opposite paths crossed at the well outside Sychar.
He comes therefore to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near to the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Jesus leaves Judea for Galilee, and the road takes Him into Samaria, a country the Jews avoided. The verse reads like a travel note, yet the route, the town and the field once given to Joseph each carry weight.
The map explains part of the journey, but not the stop.
The direct route to Galilee lay through the district of Samaria, so geography alone meant He "had to pass through". But there was a second necessity too, one connected with the grace of God. It set Him on a road that brought Him to one particular city of Samaria, called Sychar.
The town lay near Shechem, and one feature of it has outlasted everything around it.
He reached Sychar, now Askar, about a mile east of Shechem, which is now called Nablus. Close to that city was Jacob's well, and through all the country's changes it has remained to this day. Generations may come and go, dynasties rise and fall, but wells remain from generation to generation. Springs are plentiful in that district by Shechem, yet Jacob dug his own well. That would make him independent of the usual water supply in the country. It may also have marked out his ownership of that piece of land.
The field was bought land, and it ended up being Joseph's burial place. One writer draws out the irony of the setting.
We find the Lord now at Sychar, a name that means "purchased". The town took its name from the piece of land Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor and gave to Joseph, who was buried there. So all that Jacob had bought — though he meant it otherwise — and all that he could give to his best-loved son, was a grave. It was a good place to speak of another gift and another purchase, free to all who wanted it and looked for it: a spring of life instead of a place of death. Jacob's spring could be both a picture of that new spring and — as every picture must be — an instructive contrast to it.
That grave points forward:
Joshua 24:32 speaks of the piece of ground in verse 5. It was Joseph's burial place, and his father Jacob had bought it. Joseph's death is a picture of the death of the Lord Jesus, and that death is the very basis for giving the water of life to guilty sinners.
Why does this verse name Joseph? One writer traces the answer back to Genesis 49.
Joseph is a well-known picture of Christ… Take, for example, John 4:6. Why does it say that "Jacob's well was there"? Surely to catch our attention in some special way; and Genesis 49:22 uncovers the secret. Joseph, we read, is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. So in this tired Man, who sat by the well of Sychar in the noonday heat, we see the true Joseph. Even while we look at Him, we see His branches running over the wall of Judaism, reaching this poor woman of Samaria with their good fruit.
The people living around Jacob's field were not simply foreigners; they were the product of a mixed settlement recorded in 2 Kings.
The Samaritans of the Lord's day were rightly seen as a corrupt race. 2 Kings 17:24-41 records the beginning of their history. After Assyria carried away the ten tribes, its king resettled the land with men from Babylon and other pagan cities… The result was a corrupt people who "feared the LORD but also served their own gods". So they had some dim knowledge of the Lord, and of the Messiah who was coming.
The Jews had a real reason for keeping clear of Samaritans. That is what makes the Lord's presence in this town so striking.
When the Jews refused all dealings with the Samaritans, they were acting in keeping with righteousness… They were to be God's witnesses against the world… But Jesus was now standing apart from Israel. He had left Judea, the place of righteousness. He stood in defiled Samaria as Son of God, the Saviour of sinners. He had already gone to Judea looking for righteousness, the proper fruit of that country, but had not found it. He is not now to look for it in Samaria. Here He must be in another way altogether, in the way of grace only.
- Necessity — Samaria was the direct road to Galilee. The stop at Sychar met a second necessity, one belonging to the grace of God.
- Purchase — Sychar means "purchased". Jacob bought this ground, and it became the grave of his best-loved son.
- Grave — All that Jacob's purchase could give his son in the end was a grave. That is the fitting place to speak of a free gift and a spring of life.
- Branches — Genesis 49 calls Joseph a fruitful bough by a well, with branches running over the wall. At this well the true Joseph reaches past Judaism to a Samaritan woman.
- Grace — Judea was the place of righteousness, and it produced none. In Samaria the Lord stands on wholly different ground, as Saviour of sinners.
Now a fountain of Jacob's was there; Jesus therefore, being wearied with the way he had come, sat just as he was at the fountain. It was about the sixth hour.
Jesus stops at Jacob's well in Samaria and sits down, worn out from the road. Two questions follow: what does His weariness say about who He is, and why does John note the hour?
The detail is not about travel. The One who made the world felt the world's tiredness in His own body.
The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, never faints and never grows weary. Yet here He is a Stranger in the land, wearied with His journey. The One who made every drop of water in the universe is Himself a thirsty Man in the world His hands had made. In heavenly glory, angelic hosts had always surrounded Him. On earth He appears as a lonely Man.
Older translations say He "sat thus" at the well. That small word has drawn careful attention.
Houtōs, "thus" — that is, just as He was (compare Mark 4:36). The "wearied," as Zahn says, emphasises His humanity.
His body had reached its limit. His love had not.
He sat just as He was — on the well, wearied, thirsty, hungry. How truly Man He was! In His spirit He felt the hatred and rejection of the Jews with perfect sensitivity. In His body He felt the hardships of life too — the heat of the midday sun, the roughness and the length of the way, the pangs of hunger and thirst. And yet He was God, the giver of living water. He was wearied in body but unwearied in His love. At that well side He found both rest and food in doing the will of Him who sent Him.
Sitting on the well, the Maker of the world had no way to reach the water Himself.
He was weary with His journey and sat alone in the world — what an astonishing place! This was the world He had created. More than that, it was the world He had come into in love. And here He is only a weary Man, feeling the rejection of His love. In the place He had taken, He depended for a drink of water on this poor sin-wearied woman — He who had made the water. Grace is in the humbled and obedient Man — that is where what God is shines out.
Commentators differ on the clock here. Some read it as midday, and find in that heat the reason a woman would come to draw water alone.
It is the sixth hour — twelve o'clock. The sun, at its height, was pouring its burning rays on the ground. That is the moment the Lord chooses to pass that way, to meet that soul. The Spirit records the fact. And why? Because that was not the time when women in the East went out to draw water. That was done in the morning, or in the evening, when the heat was not so great (Genesis 24:11). But this woman comes out in the middle of the day... Her sin had isolated her.
Others read the hour as six in the evening, and point to the rest of the chapter.
The time seems to have been six in the evening, for the disciples had gone away into the city to buy food, which might have been for the evening meal. After this the Lord went into the city, and many of the Samaritans believed. They asked Him to stay with them. That was a kindness often shown in the East when the day was far spent.
Why does John mention the well at all? One writer finds the answer in an old picture of Joseph.
Why is it mentioned, "Now Jacob's well was there"? Surely to catch our attention in some special way; and Genesis 49:22 uncovers the secret. Joseph, we read, is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. So in this wearied Man who sat by the well of Sychar, we see the true Joseph. Even while we look at Him, we see His branches running over the wall of Judaism. They reach this poor woman of Samaria with their good fruit.
- Weary — and truly Man. Hunger, thirst and tiredness belong to a real human body. The Creator who never grows weary sat down worn out in the world He had made.
- Weary — just as He was. He sat down just as the journey had left Him.
- Weary — yet unwearied. His body gave out; His love did not. Rejected at Jerusalem, He found rest and food in doing His Father's will at a Samaritan well.
- Weary — and therefore asking. Sitting there, He depended on a sinful woman for a drink. Grace shines out through the humbled, obedient Man.
- Weary — and reaching over the wall. At Jacob's well we see the true Joseph. His branches run over the wall to reach a Samaritan woman.